H9 


LECTURE 


ox  TJIK 


National  Merits  of 


LIBERTY  OF  CHARACTER 


OF    THE 


AMERICAN   PEOPLE. 


WRITTEN   BY  JOSEPH  TURNER. 


E 

179 

Jga 


SAN     FRANCISCO 


LECTURE 


ON  THE 


National  Merits  of 


LIBERTY  OF  CHARACTER 


OF   THE 


AMERICAN  PEOPLE. 


WRITTEN  BY  JOSEPH  TURNER. 


SAN     FRANCISCO. 

1873. 


LECTURE: 

ON    THE 

NATIONAL   MERITS    OF   LIBERTY   OF   CHARACTER    OF   THE   CONSTI 
TION   AND  GOVERNMENT  OF   THE  AMERICAN    PEOPLE,  WHERE- 
BY   WE    MAY    HAIL    THE    AGE    AS    ALREADY    COME,     TO 
BE   HEARD    AS    THE    PROUDEST    EXCLAMATION    OF 
MAN,    "I   AM   AN   AMERICAN." 


This  is  a  subject  which  cost  America  her  statesmen,  her 
orators,  her  philosophers,  her  generals,  and  her  soldiers,  all 
they  were  worth  to  gain  it,  and  deserves  the  attention  of 
every  man  in  the  nation,  as  it  is  a  national  subject,  and  a 
statesman's  topic  of  the  highest  order  of  intellectual  ability; 
the  merits  of  which  awoke  the  tirst  American  orator,  Patrick 
Henry;  whose  voice  on  the  platform  awoke  the  people  of  his 
country,  and  set  them  in  a  blazo  of  fire  to  see  clearly.  At 
that  time,  they  were  but  a  broom  behind  the  door  of  the 
Government  of  Great  Brittain,  and  after  begging  for  ten 
years  to  be  something  more  than  a  live  broom  or  slave,  may 
we  suppose  England  gave  us  our  freedom,  our  doors,  our 
land,  and  the  chair  with  the  seat  of  Government.  Did  the 
South  give  the  Negroes  their  freedom?  The  answer  is,  Ko. 
Neither  did  England  give  Americans  their  liberty,  or  there 
would  be  no  merits  to  speak  of.  Their  liberty  arose  to  a 
question  of  war  with  England,  where  the  voice  of  Henry 
was  heard,  who  told  them  unless  they  meant  to  remain  as 
slaves  till  theyjwere  transformed  into  beasts  they  must  fight. 


"I  repeat  it,  sir,  we  must  fight."  An  appeal  to  arms  and  the 
God  of  Hosts  is  all  that  is  left  us.  And  in  accordance  with 
the  truth  of  his  words,  America  is  not  without  her  contest 
in  the  battle-fields  of  war  for  her  rights  and  her  liberty,  and 
has  experienced  fight  after  fight,  and  victory  after  victory, 
till  she  has  at  last  reached  that  summit  of  rest  to  overlook 
the  world  around  in  peace  and  liberty,  among  the  leading 
nations  of  the  earth;  and  I  will  endeavor  to  point  out  some 
of  the  great  men  of  the  world,  whose  coming  seems  to  have 
much  to  do  in  shaping  the  character  and  destiny  of  America, 
as  well  as  those  who  had  the  building  and  framing  of  the 
constitution  and  government  of  the  nation,  its  life  and  per- 
petuation. Once  in  a  great  period  of  time  the  world  has 
seen,  here  and  there,  a  few  great  men,  who  seem  to-be  born 
in  due  time,  and  destined  to  move  and  change  the  character 
of  man  and  nations,  through  their  discoveries  and  inventions, 
and  the  works  or  labors  of  Btheir  studies,  by  which  the  laws 
of  the  nature  of  man  and  things  are  governed  and  controlled. 
Through  the  vital  moving  principles,  of  these  laws  and  dis- 
coveries when  brought  out,  formed  into  use,  and  put  in  mo- 
tion for  its  purposes,  nations  and  governments  as  far  back  as  his- 
tory relates,  established  and  built  upon  the  partial  character  of 
the  laws  of  the  kings  and  queens  of  tyranny  >  supported  by  the 
controlling  power  of  gold  or  silver  have  fallen;  changing,  moul- 
dering, and  fast  crumbling  to  dust.  New  nations  have  arisen, 
new  governments  have  been  established  and  built  up,  plat- 
forms of  character  among  divisions  of  people,  after  the  order 
of  tyranny  and  slavery  have  been  overwhelmed  and  rooted 
out;  new  laws  and  amendments  have  been  administered  and 
supported  in  its  place  after  their  enlightened  order,  through 
the  merits  of  education,  now  cultivated,  and  fast  acquiring, 
in  the  great  masses  of  the  people  of  our  country,  the  off- 
spring and  issues,  where  these  great  events  and  changes  have 
taken  place,  as  fast  as  the  spirit  of  progression  and  the  ap- 
pointed time  approached  us,  through  the  coming  of  these 
great  men.  Consider  the  world  before  the  coming  of  Pope, 
Bacon  and  Locke,  who  aroused  and  awakened  the  human 
understanding  with  their  essays  and  treatise  on  government, 


education,  and  the  rights  of  man,  which  moved  the  world  of 
humanity  to  live  and  move  with  each  man's  and  each  na- 
tion's own  rights.  And  they  left  such  well-written  works, 
such  sun-like  thoughts  and  verses,  to  balance  and  guide  the 
human  intellect  for  the  advancement  of  civilization,  as  was 
never  seen  before.  The  commander  of  an  army  may,  with 
a  line  of  eight  words,  fasten  and  balance  his  officers  and  sol- 
diers to  stand  their  ground  in  the  battle-fields  of  war,  so 
that  they  would  rather  be  cut  to  pieces  and  fall  with  the 
sword  than  to  surrender.  Washington's  words  were  "Hang 
together,  or  we  \vill  all  hang  separately.''  If  this  was  not 
enough  to  make  a  man  see  the  rope  and  the  beheading  block, 
about  a  century  ago,  then  nothing  would.  The  commander 
of  a  ship  may,  by  experience,  learn  to  balance  a  ship,  and 
his  men  to  stand  the  storm  and  the  tempest  in  sailing  over 
the  waves  and  waters  of  the  ocean;  but  where  is  the  com- 
mander, the  philosopher,  or  writer,  that  can  balance  the 
spirit  and  temper  of  the  hasty,  erring  mind  of  man,  in  sailing 
over  the  waves  and  struggles  of  life,  equal  to  Alexander 
Pope?  In  his  well  known  verse, 

A  little  learning  is  a  dangerous  thing; 

Drink  deep  or  taste  not  the  pierian  spring. 
Their  shallow  draughts  intoxicate  the  brain, 

But  drinking  largely  sobers  us  again. 

Greater  lines  than  these  you  may  have  seen,  but  a  more  useful 
verse  than  this  I  have  not  seen.  Consider  the  world  before  the 
coming  of  Galileo,  Herscheli  and  Newton.  Who  saw  further 
than  any  before  him;  whose  name  in  history  stands  fore- 
most among  the  greatest  minds  of  the  human  race;  who, 
through  one  single  discovery,  moved  the  world  of  humanity, 
by  finding  out  how  the  world  moved.  That  it  was  not  a 
plain  or  flat  surface  resting  on  something  solid,  as  formerly 
supposed,  but  a  round  ball  or  sphere,  moving  and  revolving 
perpetually  in  its  pathway  with  all  the  other  spheres  of  the 
universe.  And  as  plain  as  the  morning  sun  breaks  away  the 
darkness  of  the  night,  so  the  knowledge  and  coming  of  this 
man  dispersed  the  cloud  and  darkness  from  before  the  eyes 
of  an  astonished  world.  Consider  the  people  before  the  cir- 


6 

culation  of  the  newspaper  and  all  the  inventions  of  the  press 
and  printing,  which  was  not  long  before  the  coming  of  two 
of  the  latest  of  our  world's  great  men — Morse  and  Franklin — 
whose  name  is  enrolled  foremost  among  the  American  men 
of  progress,  and  lives  as  the  father  of  the  arts  and  sciences  of 
America;  who,  through  one  single  invention — the  lightning- 
rod — when  brought  out,  fixed,  and  set  in  motion  by  Morse, 
the  telegraph  suddenly  moved  and  controlled  the  world 
through  the  influence  of  will,  as  it  never  was  before.  These 
great  men,  with  their  thoughts  and  their  writings,  their  dis- 
coveries and  inventions  of  matters  and  things,  are  the  lamps 
of  light  who  guide  and  support  the  feet  of  our  leading  states- 
men ;  the  most  profound  orators,  the  greatest  generals,  the 
.bravest  soldiers  and  defenders  of  our  country,  which  has 
grown  and  become  the  great  national  field  or  part  of  the 
world,  with  all  the  natural  advantages  in  relation  to  commer- 
cial and  intellectual  communication  with  the  enlightened 
nations,  where  one  great  body  of  people  live,  move,  and  re- 
volve around  each  and  every  individual  with  inalienable 
rights  of  freedom  and  liberty,  under  one  true  character  of 
government,  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  life  and  the  su- 
preme character  and  order  of  the  universe;  and,  through  the 
conversation, intelligence,  experience,  and  deeds  of  stability 
and  enterprise  in  the  education  and  established  principles  of  the 
people,  either  in  war  or  in  peace,  all  tend  to  prove  the  ma- 
jority reason,  and  conform  to  the  greatest  truth  for  the  great- 
est cause,  which  achieves  to  strengthen  and  build  up  the 
character  of  the  constitution  and  government  of  their  coun- 
try, with  its  controlling  influences  to  keep  step  by  step  with 
the  age  and  generation  of  the  times.  You  may  boast  of  a 
nation's  wealth ;  of  her  giant  strength  and  population ;  of  in- 
telligence; of  her  splendid  attitude  and  proportions  of  size  ; 
of  her  grand,  extensive  harbors ;  of  her  great  commercial 
fleets  of  ships,  with  all  her  privileges  and  advantages  ;  of  the 
magnificent  structures  and  architecture  of  her  buildings  and 
cities ;  of  her  agriculture — works  with  all  her  premiums  ot 
machinery  inventions;  of  her  fine  railroads  and  canals,  circu- 
lating  and  passing  over  the  hills  and  plains,  mountains  and 


valleys  of  her  rich  lands,  with  an  abundance  of  grass,  covered 
with  fat  cattle  and  a  plentiful  harvest,  with  all  her  vast  pro- 
ductions of  nature,  as  far  as  the  eye  or  mind  can  perceive  in 
the  arts  and  science  of  man  ;  with  all  her  resources;  with  her 
strong  navy  and  powerful  fortifications  combined,  shejnay  yet 
stand  in  doubtful  and  terminable  circumstances,  for  all  these 
are  only  the  means  of  her  support,  or  existence  for  a  period, 
while  the  grand  secret  of  success  in  the  life  and  strength  of 
man  and  nations  is  treasured  and  remembered  in  the  honor 
and  order  of  their  just  and  most  truthful  character.  The 
railroad  and  the  stage-road,  with  their  lightning  protecting 
messenger,  the  telegraph,  going  aide  by  side,  which  now  em- 
braces the  civilized  world,  joining  state  to  state,  city 
to  city,  and  nation  to  nation,  from  shore  to  shore;  making 
the  hills  and  mountains  level,  and  in  like  manner  turning  the 
seas  and  waters  of  the  great  deep  into  dry  land,  so  that  the 
matter  passes  through  among  the  fishes,  the  same  as  with  the 
birds  in  the  open  air,  before  the  eyes  of  intelligent  and  rea- 
sonable people  that  nothing  but  a  man  or  nation  of  truth  and 
honor  will  be  recognized  with  much  of  any  respect  or  atten- 
tion; for  all  these  support  character,  which  is  the  vital  prin- 
ciple of  life.  And  through  the  threads^of  life  of  Washington 
and  Lincoln,  our  deliverer  and  martyr,  and  the  never  to  be 
forgotten  Jackson,  with  the  eloquence  and  knowledge  of  our 
great  statesmen  and  orators,  who  drank  deep  in  learning, 
we  may  illustrate  the  national  merits  of  liberty  of  character 
of  the  constitution  and  government  of  the  American  people; 
"Washington  and  Lincoln  being  the  two  great  national  prin- 
cipals of  freedom  and  liberty  through  the  American  wars. 
One,  the  founder  and  builder  of  the  constitution  and  govern- 
ment of  his  country,  through  the  revolutionary  war  with 
England ;  the  other,  the  vital  moving  part  in  the  life  and  per- 
petuation of  the  nation  through  the  war  of  the  rebellion,  in 
the  extermination  of  slavery,  which  had  been  so  stinging  and 
poisoning  the  life's  blood  from  the  center  of  the  heart  and 
character  of  the  nation,  till  the  war  between  the  Northern 
and  Southern  States,  which  proved  the  triumphant  death 
and  decision  of  the  great  national  question  of  slavery  and 


8 

misery  of  our  country,  of  which  they  w.ere  relieved  through 
the  administration  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  great  Republi- 
can, martyred  President;  him,  who  saw  clearly  by  way  of 
truth  and  reason,  that  liberty  of  character,  and  not  slavery 
and  money,  to  be  the  standard,  the  vital  moving  part  and  the 
greatest  controlling  power  in  the  life  of  man  and  nations ;  so 
that  they  could  neither  honorably  demand  nor  control  their 
country's  rights  with  the  civilized  nations,  without  a  char- 
acter of  the  truest  order  of  man's  individual  and  national 
rights,  which  could  not  be  gained  but  by  paying  the  strictest 
attention  to  the  rights  of  man  in  each  and  every  state  and 
portion  of  the  Union.  Against  these  rights  were  thirteen 
Southern  States,  with  a  platform  of  character  of  slavery  or 
despotism;  the  love  of  wealth  or  money  gained  by  the  in- 
human love  of  human  property  or  slavery.  Averse  to  truth 
and  reason  and  all  humanity,  they  arose  prepared,  and  pro- 
voked a  contest  with  a  blow  to  the  Northern  States  for  a  di- 
vision line,  for  which  they  arrayed  themselves,  with  the 
sword,  the  cannon,  and  all  the  implements  of  war,  to  fight 
against  the  twin  brother  of  the  great  deliverer  of  their  country 
whose  eyes  had  been  long  closed  in  death,  his  breath  and  his 
voice  hushed  and  silenced  in  the  darkness  of  the  grave;  who 
was  the  standard  of  liberty,  the  emblem  of  America;  the  edge 
and  point  of  whose  sword,  about  a  century  before,  cut  the 
fetters  and  bonds  of  tyranny,  marked  and  established  the  di- 
vision lines  between  his  country  and  one  of  the  strongest 
and  most  powerful  nations  of  war  that  ever  crossed  the  wa- 
ters of  our  boundaries,  for  the  oneness  of  these  boundary 
lines  and  the  oneness  of  the  emblem  of  liberty,  the  standard 
and  character  of  our  nation  and  country.  Him,  Abraham 
Lincoln,  sane  and  well,  knew  the  appointed  time  of  his  des- 
tiny had  come,  either  to  save  or  to  lose,  to  divide  or  not  to 
divide,  to  surrender  or  not  to  surrender  to  the  Southern 
States  for  one  of  the  basest  and  most  abominable  evils  or 
curses  ever  entailed  on  the  mind  and  character  of  man  and 
nations.  And  tyranny  or  slavery  for  the  love  of  money  is 
evidently  the  cause  of  all  the  great  wars  and  bloodshed  ever 
recorded  in  the  oldest  history  of  the  world  to  the  present 


time,  the  truth  of  which  awakened  and  stirred  the  spirit  and 
mind  of  our  ruler  and  administrator,  to  weigh  the  world  and 
the  leading  nations.     lie  saw  they  balanced  in  his  favor, 
with  the  greatest  truth  for  the  greatest  cause — which  is  lib- 
erty and  not  slavery.     He  who  also  weighed  the  influence  of 
his  own  name  in  his  own  country  on  the  side  of  the  j^orthern 
States.    He  well  knew  from  a  child  and  from  early  manhood 
he  had  been  called  the  name  of  Honest  Abe,  and  as  he  slow- 
ly reached  the  years  of  experience  and  knowledge,  which 
matured   his  judgment   and   understanding,   by   which  he 
aimed  and  gained  the  position  and  the  controlling  power  to 
the  ascension  of  the  chair  where,  as  the  chief  magistrate  of 
the  laws  of  our  land,  he  was  considered  a  man  of  truth;  and 
in  relation  to  all  cases  and  great  national  questions  of  the  law 
and  character  of  the  people,  which  was  brought  before  him, 
his  judgment  and  understanding  was  able  to  penetrate  to  the 
truth  of  the  matter,  even  if  it  were  hidden  in  the  darkest  cor- 
ner of  the  earth,  as  he  ofttimes  brought  it  to  light  before  the 
eyes  and  hearing  of  the  most  distinguished  and  astonished 
judges,  jurymen,  and  the  ablest  statesman  and  orators  ever 
assembled  in  the  Senate  Chamber  or   court-house  of  the 
American  people.     But  he  was  not  a  general  or  a  warrior, 
for  he  never  grasped  the  sword  to  cut  his  way  through  the  bat- 
tle-fields of  war,  like  him  the  spectacle  of  whose  face  alone  was 
victory  to  an  army,  and  the  language  of  his  words  was  un- 
flinching, forward,  conquering,  and  to  conquer;  the  rope,  the 
footstool,  and  the  beheading  block  of  the  kings  and  queens 
of  tyranny;  who,  through  the  influence  of  his  own  name, 
through  the  influences  of  all  his  forces,  through  the  influence 
of  the   roar  of  his  cannon    and    all    the    implements   of 
war,  through  the  influence  of  the  mighty  terror  of  all  his 
master  victories,  made  that  lion  nation — the  mistress  of  the 
eeas — stop  and  consider.     They  were  fighting  with  a  danger- 
ous and  an  unconquerable  defender  of  manhood,  justice  and 
liberty  ;  and  through  the  generalship  of  a  noble  and  manly 
warior,  with    his  thread  of  men,  British  officer's  and  En- 
gland's soldiers  saw  more  than  they  ever  saw  before,  and 
feared  more  than  they  ever  feared  before;  and  he  was   not 
2 


10 

the  only  one  they  feared,  for  a  report  from  a  British  officer 
which  resounded  across  the  water,  in  his  own  words  to  En- 
gland, that  Green  was  as  dangerous  as  Washington,  and  they 
quailed,  yielded,  and  surrendered  the  land  of  freedom  to  the 
care  and  consignment  of  the  illustrious  champion  of  liberty, 
the  Washington  of  America — the  first  and  greatest  of  Ameri- 
cans who  saw  clearly,  by  way  of  truth  and  reason,  that  lib- 
erty of  character,  and  not  tyranny  or  money,  to  be  the  stand- 
ard, the  vital  moving  part,  and  the  greatest  controlling  power 
in  the  life  of  man  and  nations;  whose  national  mind  of  sense 
was  able  to  measure  the  length,  breadth,  and  depth  of  the 
vital  principles  of  the  great  truths  laid  down  in  the  founda- 
tion and  basis  of  the  written  instrument  which  first  formed, 
framed,  and  established  the  constitution  and  government  of 
his  country.  Which,  after  having  affixed  the  signature  of 
his  name  and  the  seal  of  government,  passed  the  house  of 
Congress,  and  on  the  fourth  day  of  July,  1776,  was  recognized 
and  commemorated  as  the  declaration  of  the  independence  of 
America.  The  merits  for  which  they  fought,  and  the  em- 
blem of  liberty — the  eagle  flag  of  stars  and  stripes — repre- 
senting the  character  of  a  new  nation  and  a  new  government* 
waved  for  the  first  time  in  the  great  republic  of  our  country? 
before  the  eyes  of  an  astonished  and  overjoyed  people,  who 
unanimously  elected  their  leader  as  the  standard  of  its  support 
for  two  terms,  and  after  having  seen  it  raised  every  fourth  day 
of  July  for  eight  years,  resigned  his  position  to  others,  with  the 
honor  of  being  the  first  president  of  his  country;  with  the 
honor  of  defending  and  gaining  his  country's  rights  and  se- 
curing their  national  independence  and  liberty;  with  the 
honor  of  being  the  founder  and  builder  of  a  new  nation  and 
a  new  government,  for  which  the  signature  of  his  name  was 
side  by  side  with  the  leading  statesmen  and  standard-bearers, 
Adams,  Jefferson,  and  others,  in  the  great  diplomatic  deed 
or  Declaration  of  Independence,  securing  and  entitling  him 
and  our  government  to  the  land  of  America  throughout  all 
its  boundary  lines,  for  which  the  flag  of  liberty  waved  in  tri- 
umph to  the  honor  and  immortal  name  of  Washington. 
There  is  yet  another  very  great  honor  which  so  much  irn- 


11 

mortalizes  the  name  of  Washington,  that  will  have  its  con- 
trolling influences  throughout  all  ages  till  wars  shall  cease 
and  time  shall  be  no  more :  that  is,  the  honor  with  which 
he  bequeathed  his  sword  to  the  heirs  before  he  died,  which 
he  wore  in  the  war  for  liberty,  never  to  be  drawn  from  the 
scabbard  unless  in  self-defense,  or  in  defense  of  their  country 
and  her  freedom,  and  in  command,  when  thus  drawn,  never 
to  sheathe  it  nor  ever  give  it  up,  but  prefer  falling  with  it  in 
their  hands  to  the  relinquishment  thereof. 

Lord  Brougham,  in  his  speech  on  the  consummate  glory 
of  Washington,  said  words  the  majesty  and  simple  eloquence 
of  which  was  not  unsurpassed  in  the  oratory  of  Athens  and 
Rome.  In  accordance  with  this  command,  the  sword  would 
never  be  drawn.  Mind  would  be  the  standard  of  man  and 
nations,  alone  of  itself,  without  the  assistance  of  the  body  or 
muscular  part,  so  that  the  flesh  would  not  be  cut  or  bruised 
nor  a  bone  broken.  The  matter  would  be  made  straight  in 
the  chair-room  and  not  in  the  battle-field.  But  the  world 
has  not  yet  got  so  far  along  as  that.  But  our  generals  and 
leaders  paid  attention  to  his  command,  and  followed  his  foot- 
steps, as  near  as  possible,  as  was  afterwards  seen,  for  En- 
gland was  not  quite  satisfied  till  the  center  of  her  heart  was 
pierced  by  the  sword  of  Hickory  Jackson,  with  his  thread  of 
men,  at  the  battle  of  New  Orleans,  where  heaps  upon  heaps 
fell  with  a  victorious  slaughter  till  he  twisted  and  turned  the 
lamentable  remaining  fleet  of  the  choicest  army  of  England, 
whereby  she  learned  to  pay  attention  to  the  rights  of  the 
people  of  his  country,  and  through  the  merits  of  the  truth  of 
liberty,  balanced  the  character  of  his  nation's  manhood  while 
he  lived;  and  the  sword  was  sheathed  with  the  honor  of  de- 
fending and  supporting  a  nation's  rights  and  securing  a  de- 
cided treaty  of  peace  between  the  two  nations — the  only  pur- 
pose for  which  it  was  drawn,  and  for  which  the  flag  of  liberty 
waved  in  triumph  through  the  honor  and  immortal  name  of 
the  never  to  be  forgotten  hero  of  liberty,  the  Jackson  of 
America.  But  the  ignoble  counterfeit  platform  of  tyranny 
and  slavery  was  again  spreading  in  the  land  of  freedom,  till 
it  covered  a  space  of  over  one-third  the  number  of  States  in 


12 

the  Union,  when,  through  the  giant  strides  of  the  American 
slave-holder,  the  flag  of  liberty  was  in  danger  of  being  cut 
down  and  trampled  under  foot,  to  wave  no  more  as  the  life 
and  light  of  the  nation.  But  his  Excellency,  Lincoln,  who 
then  held  the  ruling  power  at  the  capital — the  seat  of  govern- 
ment, where  a  man  of  truth  or  eagle  spirit  is  chosen  every 
four  years  to  sit,  to  rule  the  universal  American  nation  and 
guide  their  flag  of  stars  and  stripes — had  already  said  in  his 
patriotic  speech  in  early  manhood,  that  he  would  suffer 
chains  in  bonds  and  in  death  before  slavery  should  trample 
it ;  and  in  size,  in  form,  and  in  stature,  in  the  force  and  truth 
of  his  words,  was  equal  to  the  champion  of  liberty  before  him  ; 
and  in  spirit  of  mind,  nobleness  of  nature,  and  love  of  coun- 
try, was  the  marked  impression  in  the  features  of  his  counte. 
nance  that  the  truth  of  his  ambition  was  in  the  liberty  and 
oneness  of  the  character  of  his  nation.  Strong  and  vigorous 
both  in  body  and  mind,  through  the  labor  of  his  own  hands, 
for  it  is  well  known  in  early  life,  if  he  never  grasped  the 
sword,  he  used  and  sharpened  his  own  ax,  cut  and  split  his 
own  rails,  and  you  may  judge  they  were  full-sized  ones,  for 
he  could  not  believe  in  pieces  or  halves  of  either  rails  or  na- 
tions; and  the  implements  of  his  labors  was  held  with  a  true 
and  honest  hand,  and  his  course  was  steered  with  a  good  eye. 
Although  he  may  have  climbed  the  rough  and  rocky  side  of 
the  ascension,  he  saw  brighter  things  than  many  who  travel 
the  smooth  way,  and  by  all  who  saw  or  felt  the  edge  of  his 
mind,  in  mowing  his  swath  in  the  political  field  of  his  labors, 
were  many  times  sharpened  by  the  truth  of  his  words,  and 
through  the  influence  of  will,  evinced  and  fixed  by  the  lamp 
of  his  experience,  with  a  confidence  to  believe  that  his  course 
was  right,  and  that  the  line  of  his  direction  was  as  straight 
and  just  to  protect  their  country's  rights  as  him  who  gained 
it  for  them.  This  gave  him  confidence  that  the  people  of 
the  Northern  States  would  fight  together  under  his  guid- 
ance and  amendments  for  liberty  or  death,  to  save  or  protect 
their  country's  rights,  encircling  all  its  boundary  lines,  and 
as  the  blow  was  already  struck  at  Fort  Sumter,  the  flesh 
and  blood  of  the  Northern  States  was  awakened  and  on  fire, 


13 

so  that  the  bone  and  muscle  of  the  people  on  both  sides  was 
aroused  to  their  full  strength  for  the  fight  and  the  mastery 
of  liberty  or  slavery,  for  which  our  ruler  stood  his  ground. 
Measures  had  been  adopted  in  all  forms  to  loosen  the 
bonds  without  fighting,  but  he  seemed  destined  to  call  out 
the  volunteers  and  defenders  of  our  country,  with  the  sword, 
the  cannon,  and  all  the  implements  of  war  now  on  the  throne 
of  self-defense,  to  change  the  brute-like  platform  of  the 
Southern  States  to  the  standard  and  character  of  their  nation 
and  country,  by  taking  away  the  sting  of  slavery,  which  is 
equal  to  the  sting  of  death — from  the  center  of  the  heart  of 
a  ruinous,  nationless  race  of  Negroes,  so  that  the  people 
which  now  compose  and  control  the  great,  powerful,  progres- 
sive and  influential  nation  of  America  are  living  under  a 
higher  and  nobler  order  of  intellectual,  national  influence  of 
character  than  they  ever  lived  before,  the  merits  of  which 
will  prove  most  truthfully  to  themselves,  and  honorably  gain 
the  influence  and  respect  of  the  most  enlightened  nations  of 
the  world,  with  a  confidence  which  they  never  saw  so  clearly 
before  since  the  birthday  of  their  eagle  flag  of  stars  and  stripes, 
which  he  guided  and  supported  through  the  rebellion  till  the 
stains  and  tortures  of  the  sting  of  slavery  were  no  longer 
seen  or  felt.  As  the  North  stood  with  him  till  the  great  na- 
tional question  of  slavery  was  written  and  decided  in  his 
Emancipation  Proclamation  as  it  never  was  before,  a  ques- 
tion which  brought  out  the  talent  and  ability  of  the  ablest 
statesmen,  and  passed  the  spirit  and  power  of  the  oratorical 
eloquence  of  the  Webster  of  America,  the  truth  of  whose 
words  was  enough  to  make  the  flesh  and  blood  of  Southern 
manhood  sweat,  so  that  their  bodies  steamed  like  the  vapor 
that  pass  between  the  earth  and  the  sun,  till  they  allowed 
the  ground  on  which  they  stood  to  yield  the  fruits  of  free  la- 
bors, tilled  and  worked  with  the  rights  of  man,  in  accordance 
with  the  laws  and  examples  of  a  progressive  age.  But  no; 
tyranny  would  rather  die  a  slave  to  the  implements  of  war 
and  see  a  nation  drowned  in  blood  before  they  would  yield 
to  the  laws  and  amendments  of  progression,  which  is  gov- 
erned and  controlled  through  the  merits  of  education,  founded 


14 

upon  one  great  truth  or  basis  of  the  character  of  the  laws  of 
human  nature  and  equality  of  the  vital  principles  of  honor, 
justice,  and  liberty,  for  which,  with  sword  in  hand,  the  great 
Eepublic  of  the  North  moved  on  in  the  battle-fields  of  war, 
supported  by  the  same  truth  which  supported  them  once  be- 
fore in  the  revolutionary  war  with  England,  which  was  the 
truth  of  the  examples  of  the  laws  of  progression  that  fell  from 
the  lips  of  Patrick  Henry,  the  forest-born  Demosthenes  of 
America,  the  only  man  I  ever  heard  of  that  was  carried  out 
of  the  court-house  for  his  eloquence ;  for  such  was  his  elo- 
quence in  searching  the  truth  in  his  famous  law  case  when, 
he  pleaded  against  the  parsons,  that  some  of  the  assembly 
carried  him  out  of  the  house  on  their  shoulders  ;  and  when 
they  carried  out  that  man,  I  claim  they  carried  out  one-third 
of  the  constitution  and  government  of  their  country,  because 
it  is  well  known  that  were  it  not  for  the  sword  of  Washing- 
ton, the  eloquence  of  Henry,  and  the  pen  of  Payne,  America 
would   have  been  lost;  arid  such  was  his  eloquence  in  the 
speech  of  his  learning  and  experience  before  the  people  of 
his  country  for  their  cause  and  their  liberty.     Ceasar  had  his 
Brutus;  Charles  the  First  his   Cromwell;  and  let  George 
the  Third  profit  by  their  examples,  and  the  truth  of  a  few 
words  in  another  speech, "  Give  me  liberty  or  give  me  death," 
which  awakened  them  to  their  cause,  their  rights,  and  their 
country.     But  George  the  Third  was  like  all  other  tyrants 
before   him  ;  never  profited  in  anything  but  by  the  sword, 
with  which  he  was  determined  to  prove  the  manhood  and 
liberty  of  America,  and  after  the  works  of  war  had  com- 
menced, with  sword  in  hand,  hear  the  words  of  our  deliverer 
and  their  leader,  "Hang  together,  or  WQ  will  all  hang  sepa_ 
rately;"  the  truth  of  which  nerved  every  man's  arm  in  the 
country  with  the  strength  that  fastened  his  hand  with  a  grip 
to  the  sword  to  follow  him  for  liberty  or  death ;  who  saw 
plainly  he  held  his  own  sword  with  his  rights  to  his  will  and 
his  heart  in  his  right  hand,  with  a  determined  grip,  never, 
never,  never  to  loosen  his  hold  in  protecting  his  country's 
rights,  till  he  gained  his  nation's  freedom ;  the  independence 
and  liberty  of  the  American  people.     This  is  the  same  truth 


which  supported  the  Northern  people  to  fight  the  Southern 
people,  who  had  been  living  and  controlling  the  Negroot  to 
work  for  them,  till  their  hearts  were  harder  than  stone  and 
their  heads  became  as  sounding  brass  or  a  tinkling  cymbal,  for 
they  erringly  tinkled  and  breathed  to  England  to  assist  them 
divide,  who  had  wisely  loosened  the  bonds  of  slavery  in  all 
her  dominions  a  little  before,  by  which  she  saw  and  well 
knew  the  truth  of  our  cause,  our  liberty,  and  our  country, 
balanced  in  favor  with  the  leading  nations  and  through  one 
powerful  invention,  the  telegraph,  which  was  fast  controlling 
the  world  through  the  influence  of  will,  in  changing  the 
character  of  man  and  nations,  in  turning  their  attention  to 
the  just  standard  of  the  law  and  the  rights  of  man,  and 
through  the  influence  of  the  name  of  Morse,  the  inventor, 
who  having  received,  a  few  years  before,  such  great  honors 
and  presents  from  those  nations,  and  a  collective  testimonial 
of  four  hundred  thousand  francs,  which  must  have  deeply 
and  respectfully  united  America  in  heart  and  hand  with 
them  ;  so  that  the  voice  of  freedom  and  liberty  was  echoing 
and  reaching  from  the  center  of  the  heart  of  many  nations, 
which  secretly,  but  strongly  and  surely  bound  and  fastened 
that  powerful  nation  to  stay  at  home  and  mind  her  own  busi- 
ness as  all  the  other  nations  most  honorably  done  so  when 
the  Southern  people  saw  this,  that  their  slavery  was  digging 
for  them  a  dishonorable  grave  and  an  empty  principle  from 
whence  no  honorable  man  or  nation  ever  recognized  or 
offered  them  assistance;  they  began  to  see  their  land  of  cot- 
ton was  looked  upon  as  the  last  white  man's  slave-field  or 
dunghill  of  the  world,  where  the  slaves  and  their  slavehold- 
ers were  buried  together,  the  region  of  darkness  overshad- 
owed by  the  sting  of  death  and  slavery,  from  whence  there 
was  no  ray  of  light  to  see  to  inscribe  the  name  on  the  tomb- 
stone of  their  dead,  for  better  remain  uncarved  than  be  writ- 
ten under  the  ignoble  character  of  slavery,  that  would  read 
below  the  beasts  of  the  field,  which  turned  their  eyes  and 
their  faces  to  our  freedom  and  liberty  and  the  merits  and 
principles  in  the  motto  of  their  country.  Our  national  re- 
sources are  developed  by  an  earnest  culture  of  the  arts  of 


16 

peace  for  which  they  began  to  breathe;  and  the  great  com- 
mander-in-chief  of  all  the  Southern  armies,  General  Lee, 
surrendered,  gave  up  the  sword,  laid  down  their  arms  to  the 
national  merits  of  liberty  of  character  of  the  constitution  and 
government  of  the  American  people,  gained  and  established 
by  him  whose  name  is  ever  remembered  and  treasured  in 
the  patriot  hearts  of  heroic  generals  and  soldiers  of  the 
Northern  armies  called  out  and  guided  through  the  spirit 
and  mind  of  the  nation's  lamented  martyr,  the  Lincoln  of 
America.  When  the  truth,  in  the  lines  of  his  Emancipation 
Proclamation,  with  all  its  powerful  language  of  equity,  justice, 
and  liberty  to  that  nationless,  bondaged  race,  took  its  place  as 
a^law  in  the  standard  of  liberty,  the  constitution  and  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  ;  and  in  a  few  days  when  the  na- 
tion was  breathing  for  rest,  and  sighing  for  peace,  and  all  the 
implements  of  war  were  laid  down,  and  the  armies  on  both 
sides  were  returning  to  their  homes  with  the  knowledge  and 
understanding  that  the  last  battle  gun  was  fired ;  on  the 
eventful  evening  of  April  14th,  1865,  when  the  people  from 
the  capitol  were  assembled  together  in  one  of  the  theatres  of 
life,  when  the  house  was  filled  with  mirth,  as  the  actors  were 
on  the  stage,  lo,  a  sound  as  the  lights  went  out,  which  awoke 
the  angel  of  death,  that  spread  his  wings  on  the  blast  and 
breathed  in  the  face  of  the  foe,  as  he  passed  in  the  stealth 
of  night  with  a  pistol  in  his  hand.  The  shot  was  fatal  for 
the  words  which  fell  from  the  lips  of  the  dying  man,  "I  am 
no  more,"  proved  in  a  few  hours  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was 
no  longer  among  the  living;  the  thread  of  life  was  cut;  his 
course  was  run;  the  fight  was  over,  of  which  his  death  was 
to  balance  the  victory.  I  will  now  give  you  a  verse  to  his 
memory,  the  best  my  pen  can  afford. 

And  he  stood  for  the  Union  till  a  martyr  he  fell, 
That  the  truth  of  his  ambition  forever  may  wave; 

In  the  emblem  of  liberty  for  which  they  fought  well, 
As  the  life  and  the  light  of  the  nation  to  save. 

And  the  nation  was  shocked,  as  the  implements  of  war  were 
already  laid  down,  and  the  sword  was  sheathed,  with  the 
honor  of  defending,  supporting,  and  restoring  a  nation's 


17 

rights  and  her  just  merits  of  liberty  of  character;  the  only 
purpose  for  which  it  was  drawn,  and  for  which  he  fell  a  mar- 
tyr ;  and  the  feelings  of  the  people  who  witnessed  the  death 
and  burial  of  the  departed  spirit  of  this  man  were  rent  in 
twain,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  for  they  saw  plainly 
that  his  ambition  blended  with  their  ambition  and  waved 
with  his  nation's  emblem,  which  is  a  representation  cf  the 
greatest  national  honor  to  his  character  that  he  was  the  vital 
moving  part  of  its  retrieved  perpetuation,  for  it  waves  as  it 
never  waved  before,  with  freedom  and  liberty  to  every  one 
throughout  all  our  boundary  lines,  and  stands  as  the  victory 
over  the  sting  of  slavery,  death,  and  the  grave,  of  one  of  the 
greatest  political  martyrs  ever  recorded  in  the  history  of  the 
world,  who  left  his  nation  and  his  country  living  and  glow- 
ing with  the  spirit  and  ambition  of  his  and  our  deliverer's 
honor,  justice,  and  liberty  to  all  posterity  before  the  eyes  of 
an   enlightened   world,  for  which  the   immortal   name  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  will  be  remembered  with  a  remembrance 
that  will  live  and  circulate  from  man  to  man,  from  nation  to 
nation,  as  long  as  the  flag  of  stars  and  stripes   shall  wave 
truly  and  ambitiously  to  the  standard  of  liberty,  with   the 
strictest  attention  to  the  rights  of  man  and  the  rights  of  na- 
tions ;  for  is  not  the  rights  of  man  and  nations  the  bread  of 
life  to  the  flesh  and  blood  of  man  and  nations,  and  is   not 
the   truth  of  liberty  the    breath  of  life  to  the   vital  mov- 
ing   part   in    the  centre   of  the  heart    or  mind   of    man 
and    nations?       As     is    food     or    bread     to    the    sharp- 
ness of  him  that  is  starving  with  hunger,  and  as  is  water  to 
the  parched  tongue  of  him  that  can  scarcely  breathe,  who  is 
famishing  with  thirst,  so  in  like  manner  is  freedom  and  lib- 
erty to  the  center  of  the  heart  or  mind  of  man  and  nations. 
For  these  rights  and  the  wrongs  of  slavery  our  nation  was 
long   divided  against  itself,  arid  as  no  man  or  nation  ever 
gained  an  honorable  end  by  dishonorable  means,  slavery  be- 
ing one  of  the  meanest,  the  most  despicable,  and  utterly  the 
most  ruinous  for  its  tyrant  examples  to  the  mind  and  charac- 
ter of  man  and  nations,  had  to  be  cut  out  with  a  great  war 
and  a  great  slaughter  amongst  ourselves,  while  freedom  and 
3 


18 

i 

liberty,  with  our  cause  and  our  country,  lives,  and  eight  years 
has  been  added  to  the  nineteenth  century  of  the  new  Chris- 
tian era  since  the  world  first  witnessed  the  downfall  and 
overthrow  of  slavery  in  the  great  divisionary  part  of  the 
Southern  people  of  our  country,  where  the  bread  of  slavery 
is  no  longer  eaten  and  the  voice  and  the  rod  of  the  slave- 
holder's tyranny,  and  the  cry  of  the  slave  for  his  liberty  is 
seen  and  heard  no  more.  But  why  were  they  to  be  fought 
out  of  their  slavery?  Why  was  the  bonds  of  slavery  to  be 
loosened?  Why  was  the  weight  of  the  American  slaveholder 
to  be  removed  from  the  back  of 'the  black  man,  upon  which 
they  had  been  so  long  resting?  They  bought  them  and 
claimed  a  right  to  them,  but  there  was  a  time  to  buy  and  a 
time  to  give  liberty,  and  since  the  coming  of  Newton,  who 
loosened  the  world  from  its  resting-place,  and  set  it  moving 
and  revolving  with  harmonious  liberty  with  all  the  other 
spheres  of  the  universe;  since  the  date  of  that  discovery,  to- 
gether with  the  discoveries  and  writings  of  other  men,  the 
bonds  of  tyranny  and  the  weight  of  one  man  upon  another 
have  been  cutting  and  loosening  throughout  the  leading  na- 
tions. Consider  the  writings  and  influences  of  such  immeas- 
urable minds  and  gifts  of  nature  as  Milton,  Shakespeare, 
Burns,  or  Byron.  Think  of  the  heartrending  impression  of 
only  one  line  fromlBurns  :  "Man's  inhumanity  to  man  makes 
countless  millions  mourn."  Would  not  the  truth  of  these 
words  awaken  and  set  fire  the  heart  and  mind  of  those  states- 
men and  orators  who  held  the  position  and  such  controlling 
power  of  government  as  Pitt,  Chatham,  Brougham,  or  Palm- 
erston,  of  England,  who  stood  in  that  nation  much  the 
same  as  Henry,  Hamilton,  Clay,  or  Webster,  in  America, 
and  from  Pitt  to  Palmerston  the  bonds  of  slavery  was  loos- 
ened throughout  the  dominions  of  that  kingdom,  and  tyr- 
anny of  character  and  the  inhuman  taxation  and  oppression 
to  the  mother's  home  of  the  American  Irish  have  changed 
so  that  Ireland  to-day  is  much  the  same  as  England.  But  it 
seems  that  a  part*  of  the  Irish  heart  or  mind  beats  and 
breathes  for  a  little  more  than  this.  It  has  been  repeated, 
are  they  never  to  be  any  more  than  a  West  Briton  ?  That 
is,  are  they  never  to  be  a  nation,  so  that  such  men  as  Daniel 
O'Connell  may  be  the  standard  of  their  own  laws  and  their 
own  government.  And  when  he  had  said  his  say,  it  would 
be  as  much  for  Ireland  as  Brougham's  was  for  England,  or 
Webster's  for  America.  But,  we  may  ask,  what  is  the  differ- 
ence to  constitute  one-third  of  a  great  nation,  or  to  stand 
alone  as  a  small  one-man  nation  ?  But  little  or  no  difference 
if  the  government  is  founded  upon  a  basis  of  equality  and 


19 


• 


liberty,  so  that  one  be  not  the  lords  and  masters,  and  the 
other  the  slave  or  workingman.     It  is  well  for  the  working- 
man  that  England  had  a  Brougham,  for  Brougham  said  much 
for  England  and  mach  for  humanity,  the  merits  of  education 
and  science  ;  and  his  speech  on  the  character  of  Washington 
is  a  consideration  of  the  ability  and  respect  of  one  of  En- 
gland's greatest  and  most  distinguished  statesmen  and  ora- 
tors, who  drank  deep  in  learning  and  knowledge,  whereby 
he  understood   the  laws  of  nature  of  government  and  the 
rights  of  man  and  nations,  so  that  I  think  he  must  have 
seen  a  bright  view  of  the  national  merits  of  liberty  of  char- 
acter of  the  constitution  and  government  of  the  American 
people,  whose  voice  and  his  eloquence  once  resounded  across 
the  line  with  all  its  powerful  influences  of  equity  and  justice  ; 
and  Brougham  is  the  orator  who  never  came  and  went  be- 
fore us  without  leaving  his  speech  for  our  Washington,  and 
the  consummate  glory  in  the  liberty  of  his  character  ;  and  he 
well  knew  the  truth  and  the   light  which  guided  and  sup- 
ported the  feet  of  that  man  for  his  rights  and  his  liberty  is 
the  same  truth  and  the  spirit  which  supports  every  law  of 
nature  and  every  motion  and  action  of  manhood's  intellect, 
for  which  he  will  be  remembered  with  a  remembrance  that 
will  live  on  an  eminence  with  the  mind,  intelligence,  and  voice 
of  Webster,  who  said  much  for  America  and  much  for  hu- 
manity, the  merits  of  education,  the  union  and  liberty,  and 
drank  deep  in  the  truth  of  liberty  of  learning  and  knowledge, 
so  that  he  understood  the  laws  of  life  of  government  and  the 
rights  of  man  and  nations,  and  stood  in  his  own  nation  at  the 
head  of  the  government,  when  the  people  of  the  Southern 
States  was  looked  upon  with  the  last  White  Man's  platform 
of  slavery  and  despotism.     And  when  side  by  side  lived  the 
American  and  the  American  slaveholder,  and  although  he 
crushed  and   ground  to  powder  the  supposed  unanswerable 
bills  of  the  two  great  Southern  leaders,  Calhoun  and  Haynes, 
yet  they  turned  their  faces  against  the  eloquence  of  their 
noblest  statesman,  and  refused  to  give  the  Black  Man  his  lib- 
erty;  although  he  could  not  break  the  bonds  of  slavery  asun- 
der, he  prepared  the   way  for  its  overthrow   as  though   he 
prepared  it  not,  and  balanced  the  character  of  his  nation's 
rights  and  her  liberties  while  he  lived,  which  may  be  seen 
from  his  giant  speech  on  one  of  his  master  topics ;  .the  con- 
tributions^' America  to  Europe,  or  the  action  and  influence 
of  the  new  world  upon  the  old,  supporting  all  he  said  by 
pointing  to  the  head  of  the  nation,  Washington.     If  Ameri- 
can institutions   had  done   nothing   else,  the  -character   of 
Washington  alone  would  have  entitled  them  to  the  respect 


20 

of  mankind.  He  claimed  him  for  America — not  for  the 
Northern  States,  but  for  America.  Of  all  that  I  have  seen, 
this  was  Webster's  greatest  speech,  and  the  one  by  which  he 
framed,  and  carved,  and  made  his  mark  for  his  country  and 
himself,  and  stands  as  one  of  the  greatest  lights  for  the  guid- 
ance and  respect  of  a  nation's  character,  to  be  found  in  the 
English  language.  He  pointed  clearly  that  the  great  current 
wave  and  its  impulse  in  all  the  moving  and  revolving  trans- 
actions of  man  to  man,  and  government  to  government,  must 
be  balanced  and  supported  by  the  same  truth  and  spirit  which 
supported  the  feet  of  Washington.  And  to  stop  the  spirit 
and  power  of  the  American  people  in  defense  of  their  coun- 
try and  her  freedom,  you  may  as  well  try  to  stop  the 
world  from  moving  and  turn  it  backwards;  her  march  is  on- 
ward, her  character  is  firmly  shaped,  and  the  union  for  lib- 
erty is  bound  to  grow  stronger  and  stronger. 

For  every  thinking  man,  black  or  white,  in  the  nation, 
Is  bound  to  think  deeper  and  deeper  through  the  merits  of  education; 
Till  they  all  drink  deep  in  "Webster's  master  topics  and  Pope's  essays, 
"Which  supports  the  rights  of  man,  the  union,  and  liberty. 

But  before  reaching  the  truth  of  my  experience  in  answer- 
ing the  question  of  my  subject,  I  must  first  speak  of  the  com- 
ing of  two  of  the  latest  of  our  nation's  great  men — Morse  and 
Franklin,  who  brought  with  them  the  lightning  and  the  tele- 
graph, which  is  one  of  the  greatest  controlling  powers  of  the 
world  for  the  support  and  reform  of  character ;  its  use  and 
purpose  now  concerns  the  interest  and  welfare,  in  the  pro- 
tection of  life  and  property,  of  every  individual,  person  and 
child  throughout  the  civilized  nations.  It  has  overtaken  the 
thief,  the  robber,  and  murderer,  fastened,  chained,  and  bound 
him,  hand  and  foot,  without  touching  him,  and  without 
harming  a  hair  of  his  head,  so  that  in  no  part  or  corner  of 
the  earth  can  he  hide  himself  without  "Stop  thief!"  or,  "Stop 
murderer!"  gets  there  long  before  he  does.  In  the  black 
and  dark  night  it  has  made  him  stop  and  consider  his  ways, 
and  through  the  influence  of  will,  fastened  and  stayed  every 
nerve  from  propelling  his  foot  to  take  a  wrong  step  and  his 
hand  from  doing  a  wrong  act  or  deed.  He  sees  and  knows 
that  the  world  is  comparatively  possessed  with  two  nervous, 
transacting,  electric  systems — an  inward  nervous,  electric 
system  of  man,  and  an  outward  nervous,  electric  system  of 
wires,  on  which  thought  and  matter  of  all  that  transpires, 
circulates  with  lightning  rapidity  from  place  to  place;  which 
controls  him  to  mind  his  own  business  and  leave  other  peo- 
ple's alone,  and  if  he  means  to  get  his  own  living  independ- 


21 

ently  as  his  own  master,  outside  of  the  jail  or  prison,  he  must 
gain  it  honestly  through  the  influence  of  his  own  name. 

Among  all  the  many  and  important  influences  which  re- 
late to  the  interest  or  welfare  of  man,  whether  it  be  the  influ- 
ence of  wealth  or  money,  of  education  or  ability,  of  friends  or 
relations,  of  society,  of  state  or  national,  there  is  none  which 
strikes  the  very  center  of  the  heart  or  mind  so  forcibly  and 
with  so  much  inestimable  value  as  the  influence  or  reputation 
of  a  man's  own  name  for  his  character.  It  is  the  foundation 
and  basis  of  a  man's  success  in  any  station  or  position  in  life, 
from  the  laboring  man  to  the  business  farmer ;  from  the 
merchant  to  the  lawyer;  the  statesman  and  the  greatest  gen- 
eral or  philosopher  the  world  ever  saw,  for  the  influence  of  a 
man's  name  behind  his  back,  or  in  circulation  around  him, 
is  stronger  and  more  powerful  than  the  man  himself,  the 
means  or  money  either  to  establish  or  to  destroy  him. 

When  the  world  first  witnessed  the  invention  of  the  tele- 

fraph,  its  use  and  invaluable  worth  to  all  humanity,  the  in- 
uence  of  the  name  of  Morse  must  have  been  like  a  two- 
edged  sword,  that  cut  both  ways,  and  if  the  name  of  Wash- 
ington entitled  us  to  the  respect  of  mankind,  the  name  of 
Morse  and  Franklin  has  gained  and  will  firmly  hold  it  as 
long  as  the  lightning  circulates  on  the  wires,  for  this  was  a 
deed  and  an  invention  to  the  world  which  pierced  the  center 
of  the  heart  of  man  and  nations  so  successfully  that  the 
power  of  the  truth  of  its  worth  and  the  great  current  wave  of 
his  learning  and  genius  in  circulation  lit  up  the  people  into 
such  a  blaze  of  light  that  the  fire  of  the  impulse  of  life  would 
have  scorched  them  to  death  unless  they  had  given  him  their 
presents  and  gifts  of  money,  in  order  to  be  relieved  of  their 
feelings,  and  acknowledge  the  greatness  of  the  invention  and 
the  remembrance  of  his  coming  from  age  to  age.  And 
I  suppose  no  man  in  any  age  ever  received  so  many  presents 
and  gifst  of  money  as  Morse.  The  knowledge  and  wisdom 
of  Solomon  astonished  the  people  of  his  age  ;  so  they 
brought  him  all  kinds  of  presents  and  gifts,  for  searching  the 
truth  and  answering  their  questions  ;  but  no  age  ever  saw  or 
experienced  such  great  inventions  and  discoveries  of  human 
knowledge  for  the  advancement  and  pre-eminence  of  man  as 
since  the  coming  of  Morse  and  Franklin,  whose  names  will 
be  remembered  with  a  remembrance  that  will  live  for  in- 
numerable generations,  long  after  their  bodies  withered  and 
died.  And  the  controlling  influence  of  the  telegraph, 
as  well  as  other  discoveries,  had  much  to  do  in  hastening  the 
war  and  the  overthrow  of  slavery.  What  could  civilized  na 
tions  say  who  was  looking  on  and  watching  the  tight,  after 


22 

experiencing  the   circulation  of  the  newspaper  and  all  the 
merits  and  inventions  of  printing  and  steam-power,  the  dis- 
coveries and  courses  of  the  spheres,  as  they  move  and  revolve 
around  with  harmonious  liberty;  and  after  fully  experiencing 
the  telegraph  with  all  its  startling  and  apprehensive  impres- 
sions in  changing  the  character  of  all  classes  of  men,  in  speak- 
ing silently  but  plainly  to  the  center  of  the  heart  of  man — to 
be  a  man,  an  intelligent,  thinking  man;  a  man  of  truth,  and 
not  a  liar,  a  thief,  an  animal,  a  brute,   a  tyrant,  or  a  slave- 
holder; but  as  intelligent  men  and  nations,  who  looked  on 
and  saw  the  fight — what  could  they  say  more  than  this?    One 
world  with  all  her  nations  ;  each  nation  with  a  nation's  rights ; 
each  man  with  manhood's  rights  and  manhood's  voice  of  free- 
dom and  liberty.     For  this  voice  and  these  rights  was  the 
fetters  and  bonds  of  tyranny  and  slavery  to  be  broken.     For 
this  voice  and  these  rights  was  the  coming  of  all  the  great 
men  of  the  world,  and  the  truth  and  light  by  which  they  saw 
all  their  thoughts  and  their  writings,  their  discoveries  and  in- 
ventions, is  the  same  truth  and  the  light  which  guided  and 
supported  the  feet  of  him  who  traveled  the  dangerous  path- 
way of  war  till  he  saw  the  time  and  the  destined  place  where 
he  met  the  great  commander-in-chief  of  all  the  British  ar- 
mies, face  to  face;  to  whom  Cornwallis  surrendered,  and  the 
fetters  and  bonds  of  the  kings  and  queens  of  tyranny  was 
broken,  which  proved  the  manhood  and  liberty  of  America. 
This  is  the  same  truth  and  the  same  spirit  which  guided  and 
supported  the  feet  of  him  who  stood  his  ground  against  the 
chosen  army  of  England,  which  was  sent  out  a  few  years  af- 
terwards, as  a  double  proof  to  the  manhood  and  liberty  of 
America.     And  no  doubt  England  began  to  think  with  Pack- 
ingham,  their  commander,  that  Jackson  was  as  dangerous  as 
Washington,  and  that  the  spirit  of  Washington  would  never 
die,  for  the  American  Hickory  was  as  good  and  tough  as 
England's  oak.     This  is  the  same  truth  and  spirit  which  sup 
ported   the  feet  and  voice  of  all  our  great  statesmen  and 
orators,  from  Henry  to  Webster  and  Seward,  and  the  same 
truth  and  the  same  spirit  which  guided  and  supported  the 
feet  of  him  who  saw  the  time  and  the  destined  place  where 
face  to  face  was  Lee's  surrender,  and  the  voice  of  the  slave- 
holder's tyranny  and  the  cry  of  the  slave  for  his  liberty  was 
heard  no  more  in  America.     This  is  the  same  truth  and  the 
same  spirit  which  guided  and  supported  the  feet  of  him  who 
stood  as  the  life  and  perpetuation  of  the  nation,  till  the  night 
that  shaped  the  end  and  the  object  of  his  coming,  that  we 
may  seethe  truth  and  the  light  which  supported  the  national 
merits  of  liberty  of  character  of  the  constitution  and  govern- 


23 

ment  of  the  American  people,  through  all  their  fights  and 
their  elections,  from  age  to  age,  and  in  unison  with  the  truth 
and  voice  of  the  writer  who  said  we  may  hail  the  age  as  not 
far  distant  when  will  be  heard  as  the  proudest  exclamation 
of  man,  "I  am  an  American!" 

I  say,  we  may  hail  the  time  as  already  come,  for  the 
American  slaveholder  is  no  more.  Where  is  the  boy  but 
would  rather  hear  his  father  called  an  American  than  a  slave- 
holder? No  smart  boy,  at  ten  years  of  age,  unless  it  would 
be  to  sympathize  with  the  old  man  in  order  to  fool  him,  to 
save  himself  from  a  whipping;  for  the  voice  of  manhood 
and  the  merits  and  principles  in  the  truth  of  liberty  of  charac- 
ter is  worth  more  to  the  boy  than  all  the  slaves  or  the  money 
the  old  man  was  ever  fought  out  of,  or  the  national  debt 
included.  With  all  her  fights,  her  debts,  and  her  elections, 
I  like  America,  because  it  is  a  self-made  nation  of  a  self- 
made  people,  where  every  man's  success  is  in  accordance 
with  the  influence  of  his  own  name  and  character;  because 
it  is  a  self-made  government  of  our  greatest  intellectual  men, 
elected  by  the  people,  by  the  voice  and  principle  of  every 
man  in  the  nation,  with  equal  rights  of  freedom  and  liberty 
of  character ;  and  as  a  man's  heartis  in  his  rights,  his  lib- 
erty, and  character,  the  character  of  his  nation  and  govern- 
ment will  be  in  his  heart,  and  either  in  war  or  in  peace, 
every  man's  heart  will  be  in  his  right  hand,  to  defend  and 
support  it,  which  is  the  best  evidence  I  can  give  and  the 
surest  foundation  of  a  government's  or  a  nation's  strength 
and  her  just  merits  of  liberty  of  character,  and  as  the  glory  of 
a  young  nation  was  in  her  strength  for  her  liberty  and  the 
rights  of  man,  may  the  glory  of  an  old  nation  be  in  the- 
right  of  man  and  her  liberty  for  her  strength,  and  we  can 
say,  through  the  influence  and  character  of  our  statesmen, 
our  orators,  our  generals,  and  our  soldiers,  that  George  the 
Third,  or  rather  Cornwallis,  had  his  Washington ;  Packing- 
ham  had  his  Jackson ;  Lee  had  his  Grant,  and  Davis  had 
his  Lincoln,  arid  let  the  world  profit  by  their  examples. 

I  will  endeavor  to  explain  those  examples  to  see  in  what 
way  they  may  profit.  The  first  one  is  a  very  straight  one  : 
that  it  is  better  to  surrender  to  an  honorable  man  for  a  just 
cause,  and  see  the  merits  of  that  cause,  all  the  great  lessons, 
great  examples,  deeds,  and  inventions  of  a  new  nation  and  a 
new  government  supported  by  the  rights  of  man  and  the 
truth  of  liberty,  than  for  a  tyrant  to  whip  and  never  see 
nothing  but  a  tyrant's  cause,  deeds,  and  examples.  The 
language  and  character  by  which  the  aword  of  America 
was  sheathed  is  one  of  the  greatest  examples  or  deeds 


24 

that  the  world  ever  saw.  The  second  one  may  be  ex- 
plained this  way  :  That  it  was  better  for  the  center  of  the 
heart  of  England  to  be  pierced  by  the  lamentable  stories 
of  those  who  returned  from  that  terrible  battle,  and  see 
clearly  that  the  spirit  of  Washington  would  never  die,  and 
prove  the  merits  of  liberty  of  character,  than  to  whip 
and  never  have  a  decided  treaty  of  peace.  The  third  one  is 
rather  hard  and  crooked.  "We  may  explain  it  this  way  :  If 
a  brother  would  fight  a  brother,  to  give  a  Negro  his  liberty, 
what  would  he  do  to  give  a  brother  or  a  White  man  his  lib- 
erty ?  They  would  liberate  him,  and  if  a  blow  was  struck 
for  his  refusal,  they  would  fight  and  hang  on  to  the  fight  with 
the  toughness  of  hickory  and  the  spirit  of  the  old  eagle,  till 
the  refusals  or  enemy  were  cornered  and  surrounded,  with 
their  supplies  cut  off,  till  their  eyes  and  their  faces  looked 
one  upon  another  for  bread  and  water ;  the  same  as  General 
Lee  and  his  soldiers  did  just  before  they  surrendered. 

"And  better  for  them  to  surrender  who  struck  the  first  blow, 

That  the  emblems  of  liberty  forever  may  wave 
O'er  the  bright,  sunny  South  and  the  North  with  her  snow, 

As  the  life  and  the  light  in  the  home  of  the  brave." 

'  The  fourth  one  may  be  explained  this  way :  That  it  is 
better  for  a  man  to  stand  his  ground  and  gain  the  fight  to 
be  one  nation  and  one  people,  and  fall  a  martyr  for  the  flag 
of  manhood's  honor,  than  to  live  and  see  a  tyrant's  flag  or  a 
division  line;  that  it  is  better  to  cry  out  with  the  last  breath 
as  the  ball  took  his  life,  "  I  am  no  more  !  "  and  see  America 
more  than  it  ever  was  before,  than  to  live  and  die  or 
fall  a  prey  to  any  less  than  the  proud  exclamation,  "I  am  an 
American  !  "  which  proves  that  the  truth  and  the  spirit 
which  supports  the  national  merits  of  liberty  of  character 
is  of  the  greatest  truth  and  the  greatest  cause,  and  that  there 
is  no  truth  in  tyranny  and  slavery,  which  must  die.  It  also 
proves  that  the  reasoning  faculty,  as  the  standard  of  truth 
and  justice,  is  fast  becoming  the  predominant  or  ruling 
power  in  the  mind  of  man  and  nations.  Pope  said  that  self- 
love  and  reason  was  the  two  standard  moving  powers  of  the 
mind,  and  the  Old  World  of  kings  and  queens  for  a  tyrant's 
cause.  Selfishness  for  the  love  of  money  was  the  ruling 
power  a  century  ago.  England  may  have  thought  it  pretty 
hard  to  be  fought  out  of  America,  but  half  a  century  from 
that  date,  through  the  merits  of  freedom,  they  received  a  gift 
or  deed  in  return,from  Morse — the  telegraph — which  is  worth 
more  to  them  to-day  than  America  would  be  without  it,  and 
as  one  good  deed  deserves  another,  the  name  of  Morse  to 
France  is  much  the  same  as  Lafayette's  to  America. 


25 

Had  it  been  a  Negro  that  made  the  invention,  it  would 
have  been  enough  to  entitle  him  to  his  freedom,  and  it  ought 
to  have  gained  it  for  them;  but  because  they  were  never 
considered  much  account,  only  for  what  they  could  do  with 
their  hands,  as  slaves,  they  were  bound  to  be  kept  so  as 
long  as  they  could,  partly  as  an  excuse  because  it  was 
thought  their  backs  could  stand  the  warm  sun  a  little  better, 
without  pay,  than  the  White  Man's.  But  who  knows,  with- 
in a  period  of  half  a  century  from  the  date  of  their  freedom, 
but  that  some  Negro,  through  the  merits  of  education,  may 
come  out  with  as  great  an  invention  as  the  telegraph,  which 
may  entitle  them  to  the  respect  of  the  White  Man,  for  this 
seems  to  be  the  principal  resource  by  which  the  White  Man 
gained  his,  and  the  strides  of  intellect  by  which  the  Negro 
may  expect  to  gain  his.  People  are  learning  to  move  and 
value  people  for  their  mind  and  character,  and  not  altogether 
by  circumstances,  money,  or  color.  The  statesmanship  and 
coming  of  Lincoln  moved  the  character  and  government  of 
America  two  steps  ahead  at  once,  which  was  one  step  further 
than  a  great  many  could  see  at  that  time.  To  give  the  Ne- 
gro his  liberty,  that  step  was  just  and  right;  but  when  the 
Fifteenth  Amendment  was  first  administered  that  the^Negro 
was  to  have  a  vote  and  franchise,  this  was  a  little  more  than 
some  were  prepared  for.  They  knew  there  was  a  great  dif- 
ference between  the  words  slavery  and  liberty,  but  they 
never  saw  or  knew  the  word  liberty  resembled  the  word 
equality  so  much  before.  But  the  majority  have  decided  to 
think  now  that  it  is  right  for  the  Black  Man  to  have  a  vote 
and  franchise,  and  not  be  left  as  a  broom  behind  the  door  of 
the  government  of  our  land  of  liberty,  to  be  brushed  around 
as  an  anti-citizen,  without  a  vote  to  respect  his  rights  or  his 
name.  Give  a  man  his  citizenship,  and  a  vote,  in  a  time  of 
peace,  will  grant  him  a  warranty  deed  to  educate  himself  for 
the  occasion,  and  the  power  and  the  will  to  make  two  men 
with  the  sword  in  a  time  of  war,  although  there  seems  to  be 
a  few  who  talk  about  pure  blood  or  pure  color  yet.  But  the 
question  is,  whether  pure  blood  means  pure  gold  or  pure 
tyranny,  or  pure  truth  and  pure  liberty.  Some  are  afraid 
they  will  be  judged  by  a  Negro,  which  looks  like  false  pride. 
Far  better  to  be  judged  by  a  Black  Man  with  a  white  heart 
and  a  clear  head  of  truth  and  justice,  than  a  White  Man 
with  a  black  heart  and  a  smiling  face  that  would  betray  you 
for  money. 

Do  not  be  deceived.     Do  not  look  altogether  on  the  out- 
ward appearance  or  tine  color  of  matters  or  things.     Byron 
said,  to  be  well  dressed  would  ofttimes  supersede  the  rest. 
4 


26 

Do  not  be,  fooled,  then,  by  standing  half-way  between  the  rich 
and  well-dressed,  overbearing  moneyed  men  of  the  land  and 
the  great,  equalizing,  far-seeing  statesmen  and  leading  minds 
of  the  world,  but  live  and  rise  first  for  truth  and  manhood's 
cause,  and  money  afterward,  or  be  that  don't  is  bound  to  fall 
in  the  tyrant's  or  blind-man's  cause,  which  has  fallen  to  rise 
no  more.  The  sword  has  done  its  work,  and  done  it  well, 
for  America,  and  was  sheathed  again  through  the  honor  and 
generalship  of  the  Grant  of  America,  who  stood  in  defense 
of  his  country  and  her  freedom,  in  accordance  with  the 
bequeathed  command,  so  that  the  flag  of  liberty,  which  he 
protected  in  war,  and  for  which  he  was  chosen  chief  magis- 
trate for  its  guidance  in  peace,  still  waves  triumphantly  and 
gloriously  for  America  and  her  kindred  nations,  so  that  no 
national  debt  can  disturb  her,  no  clime  can  separate  her, 
and  no  power  on  the  earth  can  disunite  her;  and  when  the 
people  of  the  sunny  South  shall  have  eat  the  bread  raised 
and  made  with  the  rights  of  man,  and  drank  deep  in  the 
truth  of  liberty,  they  will  hunger  and  thirst  no  longer  for  the 
slaves,  nor  the  slavery  of  their  forefathers,  nor  desire  no 
longer  for  a  division-line  to  separate  the  ground  which 
raised  thebread  of  slavery;  but  they  will  breathe,  one  and 
all,  for  free  labor  and  liberty  to  every  one  throughout  all 
our  boundary  lines,  and  most  assuredly  as  the  sun  will 
rise  and  set,  in  other  days  and  other  times,  with  all 
its  refreshing  light  and  warmth  to  man  and  nature, 
when  the  black  and  dark  cloud  of  the  war  will  begin  to 
move  away,  the  truth  and  the  light  which  supported  the  na- 
tional merits  of  liberty  of  character  of  the  constitution  and 
fovernment  of  the  American  people  will  be  seen  and  known 
y  the  enlightened  world  throughout  all  her  nations, 
throughout  ail  her  classes,  throughout  all  her  colors,  and 
throughout  all  her  different  races  of  the  human  family. 

JOSEPH  TURNER. 


